docgonzo · HackerTrans

3 года назадdiscuss

A series on the Peloponnesian War from the Great Courses. Heard but not seen. I had been listening to some series on Greek history that seemed to culminate with this "civil" war. There are fascinating lessons about how democracies can fail. The lecturer (Ken Harl) is amazing and gets excited to the point he's almost shouting (not in a bad way) by the end of lectures. Some highlights include the Athenian democracy voting itself out of existence, multiple betrayals, and a cameo from Socrates. I got a copy from my local library at the time ~ 2014. https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/peloponnesian-war

docgonzo

5 лет назадdiscuss

https://localwiki.org/davis/Banning_leaf-blowers finally a political party I can get behind

docgonzo

5 лет назадdiscuss

Non-GMO still uses herbicides. Glyphosate is comparatively very safe [0]

[0] https://www.epa.gov/ingredients-used-pesticide-products/glyp...

docgonzo

6 лет назадdiscuss

Organic farming uses pesticides as well. Are they safe for the environment? We don't know because they're organic and therefore must be safe. See links within: https://theness.com/neurologicablog/index.php/organic-pestic...

docgonzo

6 лет назадdiscuss

I feel this is closely related to Therapeutic Touch. While these practices may be generated by a placebo affect, I would argue that there is a difference between feeling better and being better. Therapeutic touch was largely debunk by a 10 year with a simple experiment that blinded the practitioners as to whether they were applying their touch to a patient or not using a piece of cardboard [0]. The practitioners could not tell the difference. Interestingly, the author is the youngest person to publish a research article. Science based medicine has a nice response to this article as well [1]. [0] https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/187390 [1] https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/no-editors-of-the-atlantic-...

docgonzo

6 лет назадdiscuss

When I was a UC grad student, it appeared to me that the UAW preyed on idealistic students that the UAW could take advantage of. I agitated for having them ejected but was told something along the lines of "we're not allowed to talk about that." I would have liked to continued questioning, but I lost the floor at that point.

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